


Try

by Laramie



Category: Downton Abbey
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-24
Updated: 2015-11-24
Packaged: 2018-05-03 02:34:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5273291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laramie/pseuds/Laramie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If anyone had asked Daisy how she had gone from teaching a Lady to boil an egg to slipping into her room most nights, she would not have been able to tell them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Try

**Author's Note:**

> So I guess this is an AU where Branson doesn't exist. And probably where Sybil spends longer preparing for her nurse training in 2.01.
> 
> Inspired by an anon prompt: http://promptonabbey.tumblr.com/post/133813550949

If anyone had asked Daisy how she had gone from teaching a Lady to boil an egg to slipping into her room most nights, she would not have been able to tell them. But, luckily, no one would ever ask, because no one would ever know.

No one would know that when her day's work was finally done and the low-ranking maids such as herself had been ushered to bed, she slipped down the attic stairs, quiet as the space between clock-ticks. No one would know that she flattened and re-tied her hair in the bathroom, washed her face and hands. No one would know that she crept out into the corridor upstairs, and laid gentle footsteps across the lush carpet in a trail that led to Lady Sybil's bedroom door.

She didn't knock; Sybil knew she was coming and it wasn't worth the risk of being caught sneaking about Upstairs when she was supposed to be in her attic bedroom. Sybil insisted that Daisy would not get in trouble - that Sybil was within her rights to have friends among the servants if she wanted - but Daisy still feared discovery. Sybil respected her wishes; she told no one about Daisy slinking into her bedroom after dark, letting out a relieved sigh to have made it without incident, and giving Sybil a smile.

It was funny; they had lived in the same house for so many years and barely spoken, and they had only been meeting up like this for less than a fortnight and yet it was as though they had been best friends for years. There was just something about Sybil - something about her poise, or her beauty, or her kindness and optimism shining through every pore - that made Daisy want to tell her everything, and hear everything about Sybil in return. So that was what they did most nights, cocooned up together in Sybil's lovely soft bed, both before and after they undressed each other, kissed each other's mouths and touched the most intimate parts of the other.

It was the talks afterwards that Daisy liked best, when she was warm and shivery and a little sleepy. She would lie gazing into Sybil's lovely face and they would share stories of their childhoods. They had more common ground in their childhoods, before society took them down very different paths. Sybil promised to lend her the books that she had learned French from, and followed through the next day; Daisy teased her more clumsily than she would have liked for not being able to steam a pudding - only to proceed to teach her, the next day.

On this night, they had exhausted all their talking. Each was already tired from their long day in the kitchen. They lay close together under the blankets, skin against skin, arms looped together and ribcages touching. Daisy blinked slowly and fought not to fall asleep, to prolong the moment.

"Tell me a story," Sybil requested in a murmur, wriggling contentedly deeper into the bed's embrace.

"I've already told you me whole _life_ ," Daisy said. "I haven't got anything else to say."

Sybil turned her head to look at Daisy's face, smiling fondly as Daisy met her eyes. "Make something up for me?"

"I-I don't think I'd be very good at that," Daisy said uncertainly.

"Try," Sybil implored, entwining their fingers. "I'm sure you'd be simply marvellous at it, if you tried."

Daisy laughed. "You always say that."

"That's because I believe in you, dear one," Sybil said, adding, mock-haughtily: "Am I ever wrong?"

Again, a giggle escaped through Daisy's lips, lifting her cheeks in a smile. "No."

Sybil leaned in for a kiss and smoothed back Daisy's hair before saying: "You don't _have_ to, of _course_. I'd just like it very much if you did."

Daisy straightened her neck and looked thoughtfully up at the ceiling. "What would you like the story to be about?"

Sybil rolled over to get even closer, fitting her chin on Daisy's shoulder. Her breasts were touching Daisy's arm; two weeks ago, Daisy would have found that awkward and rather embarrassing, but now it was just a facet of their closeness. "How about a beautiful princess who's undercover as a spy," Sybil suggested.

"Who's she spying on?" Daisy asked, stroking Sybil's hand with her thumb as she gazed upward, lost in imaginings. It was as though possibilities were swirling in the air around her, even if she couldn't see them clearly.

"That's up to you."

"All right…" Daisy frowned, thinking hard. "She's spying on her brother. No - his fiancée. Because he's getting married and she doesn't trust his soon-to-be-wife."

"How thrilling," Sybil said happily. "What has this fiancée done to rouse the suspicions of our good princess?"

Daisy turned her head so she could enjoy Sybil's reaction as she said: "I never said the princess was good."

Sybil gasped, clearly delighted. Her eyes were shining, even though her eyelids drooped. "Smashing. You're a natural at this."

The praise made Daisy feel as though she was glowing. "The princess is trying to find out whether her brother's fiancée can be trusted with the truth about their lives…" Daisy went on, and continued telling her story until her throat was dry and her eyes ached with fatigue.

Sybil was still lying against her, eyes closed and almost asleep, but she had been murmuring or humming in response to Daisy so she had not quite drifted off.

Putting her arms more fully around Sybil, Daisy said: "I've never told anyone I love them before, 'cept me family."

She felt Sybil smile against her skin. "Try."


End file.
